Firearms

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland what was the distribution of all firearms used in known crimes in Scotland during the years 1960 to 1972, respectively, as between firearms stolen from legal owners; firearms with legitimate licences; firearms stolen or otherwise from the police or Armed Forces and firearms from unidentified sources; and what were the total numbers of firearms in legitimate private ownership during the same years.

The available information about firearms used in crime in Great Britain is contained in the Green Paper "The Control of Firearms in Great Britain" (Cmnd. 5297). Paragraph 19 of the paper explains the difficulty of ascertaining the source of firearms used in crime; paragraphs 20 and 21 give details of a number of cases involving firearms which had been legitimately held108W
and were subsequently used in crime; and paragraph 26 gives the number of certificates in force at the end of 1971.